Open Access in Theory and Practice

by Stephen Pinfield, Simon Wakeling, David Bawden

Open Access in Theory and Practice investigates the theory-practice relationship in the domain of open access publication and dissemination of research outputs. Drawing on detailed analysis of the literature and current practice in OA, as well as data collected in detailed interviews with practitioners, policymakers, and researchers, the book discusses what constitutes ‘theory’, and how the role of theory is perceived by both theorists and practitioners. Exploring the ways theory and practice have interacted in the development of OA, the authors discuss what this reveals about the nature of the OA phenomenon itself and the theory-practice relationship. Open Access in Theory and Practice contributes to a better understanding of OA and, as such, should be of great interest to academics, researchers, and students working in the fields of information science, publishing studies, science communication, higher education policy, business, and economics. The book also makes an important contribution to the debate of the relationship between theory and practice in information science, and more widely across different fields of the social sciences and humanities

256 pages, Hardcover

Published July 9, 2020

Reviews

[Algirdas Kraunaitis · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are loads of textbooks with the subtitle 'Theory and Practice', and they are usually no different from other textbooks on the same subject. I will admit - I misunderstood the title of this book. I expected a regular textbook on Open Access. Instead, this is an in depth study of what is a theory, how theory is viewed and used by researchers and practitioners, what is a practice etc. and how all of that related to Open Access. OA in this case is just a field from which the concepts of theory and practice are explored. I found this surprisingly interesting at times, the book makes some interesting observations about theories and real examples from the study group used were very illumination. Still, I do not reccommend this to anyone not familiar with OA or wanting to learn more.